There was no celebration on that windy day in March. The friends were on opposite sides of town, completely unaware of the other. This may not seem a strange fact at first. Like any second take, when you look deeper into the facts, you find that there is something wrong with the picture.
On the tenth anniversary of their friendship, the two women spent a week together on their first cruise. They brought the world to each other. For the fifth anniversary of their friendship, the girls threw a wild party. Their friends came and fun was had by all. Twelve years ago this day, the girls first met. They spent all night talking and called each other the moment they woke the next evening.
After that point they were nearly inseparable. So, you see, this was no ordinary friendship. It was a blending of souls. A moment of fate that bound two lives together. This leads to a hard question. What where the women doing on this, the twelfth anniversary of their friendship?
Anna was trying to get pregnant. Her husband perched above her in an unfortunate position of coital remiss. Patiently she waited for him to fulfill his husbandly duty. The time was not long before he finished. There was no warm touch or words. He turned over as she leaned her legs against the headboard. His back still turned, Jim mumbled, "I never knew sex could interfere with a person's love life."
"Don't be silly." Anna dismissed as she rubbed her belly.
"I'm not." Jim replied and rolled over. "We don't do this for fun anymore. I have to do it. Kinda takes away all the fun."
"You used to say sex was like pizza."
"No one's ever force fed me pizza before."
Anna rolled her head towards Jim. "I don't wanna fight."
Jim sat up. "We're talking, not fighting."
"Your tone is a fight."
"Fine." Jim threw back and left the room.
Lucy brought two paper cups of hot coffee to the table. She sat one down in front of Poppy and took a sip from the other. Poppy was a new acquisition. She was wild and fun. Pink hair, leather pants, and red cowboy boots. They met in English Lit at the local community college. Lucy was trying to figure out why she still felt lost at 29 and Poppy was fulfilling an English credit.
"So, the big question." Poppy started in that mischievous way of hers. "How many guy's you been with?"
"Too many to count." Lucy threw back casually.
"And girls?" Poppy asked, pushing further.
Lucy chucked. "Not enough -"
"-to count." They finished together with a laugh.
"Still good to know you're experimental. I hate that part of meeting someone where you think their great, and all, until you find out their not adventurous at all. Square, and all."
"Square?"
"Retro's in." Poppy returned, matter-of-fact.
"Well, I hope not to be square, then."
Poppy laughed at her. They feel into a hole, without anything to say. Lucy stared at the customers milling about. Poppy sipped her coffee comfortably.
"So that friend you were talking about..."
"My best friend? Anna?"
"Yeah. Where's she today?"
"Who knows." Lucy replied, derisively.
"Wow." Poppy chuckled." So much said in so few words."
Lucy mumbled, "I don't know."
"You know what I think?"
"Sure, I'm open."
"Know a person too long; it's that much easier to hate them."
"That's...a thought."
She made a sound. "More than a thought, it's a lifestyle."
Lucy looked at her, considering.
"I know...its a little dark. Maybe even morbid. But I like new. Like this, right now. We just met and this is so fun."
"Don't you get lonely?"
Poppy looked Lucy square in the face. "Do you know anyone who isn't lonely?"
"Well..."
"Forget all the married people. They don't count. But all the rest?"
Lips parted, Lucy let her eyes slide up as she thought. Slowly, Lucy replied, "Point taken."
Poppy shrugged and leaned in. "Let's talk about something else. Something jucy. Like...who was the first girl you kissed?"
Dinner was at five. It was days since their anniversary. This wasn't a celebration, it was more familial obligation. Lucy showed up a half hour early. Anna wasn't ready, so she let Jim get the door. Lucy smiled at Jim, lovingly, and gave him a big hug. It was days like this, with Anna in a mood, that Jim wondered if he choose the wrong friend. At one time Lucy and Anna were like twins from separate mothers. That could no longer be said.
Lucy sat down at the kitchen table and stole lettuce from the salad bowl. She was dressed in a pair of comfortable jeans and a baby doll t-shirt. Anna walked in with a large platter. The pink polo matched her pink socks. Lucy tried not to laugh. Anna pointed a spoon at Lucy, warningly.
"No grazing."
"Yes, mother!" Lucy called at Anna's back. Then she stole another piece of lettuce and winked at Jim. He smiled and reached over to steal a piece himself.
"So..." Anna started in the kitchen. "What you been up to?"
"Porn. Nudity. Girls." Lucy replied.
"Don't tease my husband, Luce." Anna brought in another dish and sat down at the table. "Who wants bread?"
"I don't mind." Jim told his wife.
"Yes, well, you're a man." Anna told him as she tossed a piece of bread at his place. "So that figures."
"Harsh, girl." Lucy said as she served herself.
"Now, really. It's been a while. How's life?"
Lucy pushed down her frustration. She hated when Anna just glossed over things, as she just had. Lucy took a bite of lasagna to escape the question for a moment. Her friends began to eat as well. It took longer than she planned three bites instead of one, to find her equilibrium.
"You know. School and work."
"You really should take me up on my offer." Lucy began.
"I don't think so."
"You'd make good money and it'd be steady hours, as compared-"
"I like my job at the bookstore, Anna."
"The state offers benefits-"
"You're not listening!" Lucy interrupted. "I'm happy. I can work a steady job after I know what job I really want. That means school and time."
"I was just...You don't have to get all-"
"You weren't listening!"
"Girls," Jim interjected, "Let's not fight."
Anna and Lucy went silent.
"Can't we have a nice dinner together? You two barely ever see each-"
Anna interrupted, "I'm a woman, Jim. Not a girl."
"Fine." Jim admitted, holding back his own frustration.
"I met this girl." Lucy said, changing the subject. "And we had this amazing weekend."
"Well." Anna threw back, obviously still angry. "Isn't that nice."
"Actually, it was. I haven't had such a good time in years."
"And you're dating now. You and this girl."
Lucy stared at Anna. She took a breath and looked down at her plate.
"Do you have a problem...with my lifestyle...Anna?"
"We are all getting a little older, Luce. Don't you think-"
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Jim yelled, startling the women. "All week all I hear is how much you miss Luce and how much you wish she'd come by more. Are you such a miserable fucking woman that you can't even enjoy one evening-"
"Jim. Jim!" Lucy interjected. She chuckled a little. "It's okay."
"It's not." Jim told Lucy flatly. The plate rattled on the table as he pushed away from the table. Anna stared down at her dinner. She put a hand over her eyes and her shoulders began to shake. Lucy stared everywhere except her friend. She didn't want to comfort Anna. After twelve years she was tired of making up.
"My friend..." Lucy started. Anna looked up, her face tear soaked. "Y'know, the one I just met? She thinks familiarity breeds contempt."
"That's a terrible thing to say." Anna said, wiping the tears from her face with a napkin.
"I don't know. There's a little truth in it, don't you think."
"I think people breed contempt." Anna threw back, her voice tinged with spite.
"Yeah." Lucy murmured.
"What is this all, Lucy? A mid-life crisis? I mean, you're not old enough to go through one of those yet. Don't you ever want to grow up?"
"I'm not looking to steal back my youth, if that's what you mean. I just don't want to loose that thing that makes me youthful."
"It sucked back then, Luce."
"But it doesn't now." Lucy told her, a little pleading. "I want to enjoy it now. Can't you understand that?"
"You don't think I enjoy my life?"
Lucy blinked. "How do you want me to answer that?"
Anna threw her chair back and marched out of the room. Slowly, Lucy followed the path Jim took to the backyard. He was smoking in a dirt smudged lawn chair. She grabbed a patch of damp grass. They were silent, comfortably, for a moment. Then Jim smashed the smoking stub under his foot.
"She'd be pissed."
"I won't tell." Lucy promised. "Is that about the baby?"
"Everything is about the baby. Can't smoke. Can't curse. We're not supposed to fight either."
"Like that'll ever happen."
"Tell her that." Jim replied with disgust.
"Do you remember..." He started and then trailed off with a shake of his head.
"What?"
Jim gave her an empty look. "The plan was to defy youth. Live that way forever. Two more years, that all I had to wait."
"The threesome?" Lucy laughed. "You're still thinking about that?!"
"I'm a man, right? 'Course I'm still thinking about that."
"So you grew-"
"She promised." Jim told her. "And that isn't the first promise she's broken. It's just one that matters. It's the one that really meant something. It represented...who we were supposed to be now."
"Thing change."
"No. No. That's no excuse." Jim stood and tapped another cigarette from the pack. "You haven't changed."
"Oh...Please. Don't use me as an example. I'm afloat-"
"And we're not." Jim said around the cig between his lips.
"You're smoking." Anna said from the frame of the sliding glass door.
Startled, Jim and Lucy turned to Anna. Jim blew out a long stream of smoke and then turned his back on his wife. Anna folded her arms and stepped into the cool night. Lucy stood and folded her arms. The two women stared at each other.
"I wanna....I wanna take a break." Anna told Lucy.
Jim pivoted so he could step up. "Don't do this, Ann."
"I've been thinking, y'know. We're so...different. And I've talked to Jim-"
"Fuck good that did." Jim said, walking past Anna with the lit cigarette still in his hand.
Anna turned to her retreating husband. "Jim, the cigarette..."
"Finish dumping Lucy, Anna, and then we can talk about whatever the fuck I'm doing."
"I think we're pretty much done, don't you Ann?" Lucy said, also pushing past. Anna followed her into the dining room.
"A little time..."
Lucy spun to face Anna. "This has nothing to do with time. This is about something you decided a while ago I don't understand and honestly, I don't wanna understand."
"I just grew up."
Lucy grabbed her coat and purse. Anna trailed her to the front hallway. They faced each other, the door open. Lucy threw in her final words. "So tell me, Anna. What's the difference between growing up and growing old?"
Anna blinked and opened her mouth like a fish gasping for water.
"That's right." Lucy finished. "Nothing."
The End.
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